


In Spite, We Live

by Jadzia_Lupin



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Cardassia, Domestic Cardassia, M/M, Post-Canon Cardassia, Religion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23581201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadzia_Lupin/pseuds/Jadzia_Lupin
Summary: While on Cardassia as a diplomat, Kira Nerys visits a Cardassian temple.(Not really about Garashir, but it’s in there)
Relationships: Julian Bashir/Elim Garak
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

She couldn’t believe it. Well in truth, she _could_ see why she of all people was being sent to Cardassia as a part of the diplomatic team, with her involvement in the Cardassian rebellion and all. But still, Nerys had had enough Cardassian drama for one lifetime. 

Not to mention these talks were destined to be a mess. And that was the _best case_ scenario; they were ordered to provide aide to the Cardassian people in hopes of opening a dialogue and ushering in a new era of peace between their two peoples. Even if they were to ignore the fact that many Cardassians would be appalled by the idea of being an object of pity- especially of the Bajorans-, it was too soon for Bajor; they were still recovering from the occupation, and probably wouldn’t be able to stand fully on their own for another decade at least. 

But Shakaar was adamant. “We must open the possibility of peace now, while they’re vulnerable.” When Nerys had disagreed, he had been so kind to mention the fact that their resistance cell had used that tactic before when they’d chased away a battalion of Cardassians, and captured a wounded soldier who they’d gotten to tell them the location of three Cardassian bases they hadn’t known about previously, as well as their vulnerabilities. 

When Bashir and Dax chimed in, saying that that was an excellent plan, Nerys knew she’d been backed into a corner. Not that she had any power to refuse and still keep her job. 

And now she was on a Bajoran relief shuttle headed straight for Cardassia Prime, trying to tune out the ramblings of Dr. Bashir, who was coming along to join the Federation relief efforts temporarily (though she knew it was mainly because of Garak). He was going on about post-occupation Bajoran literature and art, which he’d recently become fascinated with. 

“... _because_ of that renewed sense of optimism and courage. Now of course, there’s a bit of cockiness mixed in there somewhere, no offense, but all in all, the motivation of-“

“I’m sorry, Julian, I,... I wasn’t paying attention. I’d like to hear about it later, but I have a lot on my mind,” she said with a tired smile, hoping she didn’t come across as mean.

Julian looked down with an awkward smile, then turned back to her. “Sorry about that. I suppose I was running off at the mouth a bit.” He chuckled and adjusted himself in his seat. “I’m a bit nervous, is all.”

“You’ve called Garak, right?”

“It took a little convincing, but he’s fine with having us stay with him.”

“Good,” Nerys nodded, eyeing the concession cart that was coming towards their seats, “the last thing I want is to sleep in a Cardassian hotel.”

He furrowed his brows as the concession cart stopped at a passenger for seats away from them.

“I’m guessing by your reaction that you don’t know how Cardassian hotels work.” Nerys tried to ignore the screaming toddler across the aisle from her. 

The Human shook his head. 

“It’s not _awful_ ; just annoying. I’ve never been in one, nor do I ever want to.” She paused a moment to order a _tola_ bar and continued, “basically, they don’t have separate rooms for separate parties. I mean there’s a few separate rooms, but there’s at least a dozen people sleeping in each room, and they’ll stick you with total strangers! No privacy at all! I don’t think you can fill in the rest of why it’s annoying.”

“Aye.” Julian bit into his own _tola_ bar. “Yeah that doesn’t sound very fun. What _is_ this?” He picked the packaging back up to read it. “I thought _tola_ was Bajoran chocolate?”

“There’s no ‘Bajoran chocolate’; chocolate is an Earth food. I said it’s _like_ chocolate.”

“Oh,” Julian examined the light brown candy bar, sniffing it a little. “Well it’s not bad or anything. I was just expecting chocolate.” 

Nerys rolled her eyes at the Human and looked out the window. 

——-

After the ten hour flight to Cardassia, being delayed at the shuttle stop in Ivri’Dodaki for two more hours due to a “type six sandstorm”, not being able to get to their luggage until the shuttle’s storage compartments were unjammed, and a twenty minute skimmer ride that felt like twenty _hours_ because of the driver’s lengthy recollection of his military career that nearly put Nerys to sleep, they were finally in front of Garak’s house. 

It was a sweltering 38 degrees Celsius, or as the weather announcement at the shuttle station had said when the sandstorm was over: “a brisk winter evening”.

Garak now lived in a suburban area, which delighted Nerys, as she’d never been a fan of big cities. It seemed that non-urban Cardassians lived in houses that were mostly underground, with small above-ground sections. They had the same basic architecture; smooth beige stone with dark wooden highlights, curving edges topped with sharp antennas. The front door was round and bordered with flowering vines. The walls had large windows that were covered on the inside with thick purple curtains; the one beside the door was open, spilling a wedge of light onto the garden and revealing Garak sitting at a table with a steaming beverage, looking at Nerys and Julian. Julian waved as Nerys lugged her suitcase up the dirt walkway, and knocked on the door. 

“He says we can come right in.” Julian followed, carrying his own suitcase.

“Okay.” Nerys grabbed the brass doorknob and opened the door, finding herself in a tiny closet-sized room with a dim light above her head and another door on the other side. She stepped forward and pushed that one open too. 

“Colonel! Doctor! Welcome!” Garak took her suitcase and gestured for her to sit down on the couch. 

The couch matched the curtains and was pushed up against the corner walls, cramped into the corner along with four other chairs, which also matched but had gold-and-purple striped pillows in each of them. There was a viewscreen on the wall across from it; it was completely off, with not even the Cardassian insignia. It was oddly cozy. Nerys sat down on the couch with a satisfied groan and Julian took a chair. Garak went behind the wall for a moment and returned with two steaming hot drinks, which he handed to them. “Tarkalean tea, moban tea.” They thanked him and he grabbed his own drink from the table and sat with them. 

“I see you’ve settled back in pretty well,” Julian commented, “I like the decor.”

“Thank you, dear Doctor.” Garak gave his trademark cheeky smile. “I certainly have.”

“Cheers to that,” Julian raised his mug and clinked it against Garak’s. “So what exactly have you been up to?”

“I’ve been helping rebuild, of course. Meeting up with old friends. The ones who are still alive, of course. How are things on the station?”

“A bit dull, now that you and Miles have both gone.” Julian shrugged. 

Garak turned to Nerys, “what about you? I heard about Odo.”

“Yeah,” she replied, “I haven’t heard from him, but no one’s heard anything from the Dominion, so I guess he’s doing good. Anyway, I’ve been fine. I mean it’s been kinda hectic on Deep Space Nine, but when hasn’t it been?”

“Excellent! I take it you’ve had a long journey. You both must be _exhausted_!” Garak said, holding his drink with both hands. 

“A _very_ long journey.” Julian replied. “Though I suppose I’m not... _too_ tired.” The corner of his mouth pulled up slightly at Garak. 

She mentally chuckled, and said, “you boys can stay up as long as you’d like. _I’m_ going to bed once I finish this.” She gestured at her tea.

“Don’t worry. We won’t wake you,” Garak promised. “By the way, the water pipes are down, so you’ll have to use the sonic shower.”

“Duly noted,” Nerys nodded, “thank you.”

—————

The rest of the house apart from the sitting area was underground. Nerys ran her fingers over the intricate design carved into the stone wall as she walked downstairs, dim lights illuminating her path. When she got to the bottom, it was dark. “Computer, lights,” she commanded habitually. When it remained dark, she felt around the wall and found the switch, which she pushed and the lights flickered on. She found herself in a rounded, meter-wide hallway paneled with wood, decorated with a bright green garland that had a distinct, yet unfamiliar smell. Across from the stairwell there was a rectangular door sunken into the rounded wall, and there were two more doors on either end of the short hallway. 

Nerys turned right and pulled her suitcase into the room on that end and turned on the light. The guest room was a bit smaller than the sitting area upstairs, just wide enough for two neatly-made bunks to fit length-wise against the wall to the left, a dark wooden dresser and matching shelf in the middle, and a desk with a computer and chair on the right. The walls were painted light blue with several paintings hung on the walls, including a few by Ziyal. The bunks had heavy gray blankets and matching pillows with pink floral designs. Nerys put her suitcase on top of the dresser, which was about waist-level, and opened it. She took out her pajamas and toiletries, closed it, then went back out into the hallway, briefly hearing muffled voices of Garak and Julian upstairs before going into the bathroom, which was the middle door. The bathroom was about half the size of the guest room and had water damage all along the back wall. The sonic shower was cramped but effective. Maybe not as satisfying as a water shower would’ve been, but she felt much cleaner as the sound waves knocked off the thick layer of sand she had acquired just by being outside on Cardassia. 

There were personal reading lights above both bunks. After returning to the guest room, she decided to catch up on reading the last book Odo had recommended; it was an early Bajoran pre-industrial romance and mystery that Nerys had never expected to be able to get into. Unfortunately, with the war and everything, she’d had to stop halfway through. She turned the reading light on and went to turn the big light off when she was started by something she hadn’t noticed before. 

Above the door was a framed painted portrait of a Cardassian man who Nerys didn’t recognize. The painting itself looked very old, but the man in the picture was relatively young. His eyes stared harshly into the room and seemed to follow her around. Honestly, she wouldn’t have minded too much if it wasn’t so creepy. After a half hour of laying down on the lower bunk, trying to read and ignore the painting, the eyes started burning into her, scowling at her, angry. No. It had to go. Nerys pulled the chair to in front of the door and stood on top of it to grab onto the framed painting. She pulled, but it didn’t budge. It seemed to be attached to the house itself. So she dug through her suitcase until she found a shirt that she didn’t particularly care for, and tucked it around the painting’s corners to cover it.

She went back to reading, no longer feeling queasy now that the painting was covered. It was too warm for the blanket, so Nerys just curled up in the bunk, holding onto the plump pillow, and fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

By morning, it was even hotter than before; so much so that Nerys had stripped down to her underwear in her sleep. When her alarm rang at 0600, she quickly redressed, quietly so as to not wake up Julian, who was still asleep in the top bunk. He had woken up by the time Nerys returned from the bathroom to put her pajamas away. Her uniform was far too unbreathable for this climate; not particularly thick or anything, but it still trapped far too much body heat for comfort. 

“You’re lucky you have that Starfleet uniform.” Nerys commented to Julian, remembering how the Federation fabric had felt on her body; it had been itchy and caused a slight rash, but it allowed her to stay relatively cool on Cardassia. “How late did you get to bed last night?”

“Almost three hours after you did.” Julian replied. “I didn’t wake you at all, did I?”

“Not at all,” she opened the top left dresser drawer and started putting her shirts in it. 

“I see you covered something.” Julian gestured at the covered painting. 

“Yeah. It’s a creepy painting that’s attached to the wall. I was planning on asking Garak about it.” She closed the drawer and moved on to putting a different category of clothing into the second drawer.

“Do you mind if I take a peek?” Julian moved to the foot of his bunk, from which he could reach the painting.

Nerys shrugged. “Do whatever you want. Just don’t take the shirt off.”

Julian pulled the shirt up to look at the painting as Nerys continued loading the dresser. “Woah! That _is_ weird.”

“Do you recognize it?”

“No. Must be important if his portrait is attached to the wall like that.” 

“So I gathered,” she finished putting her clothes into the dresser and pushed her suitcase under the bunks. “I’m going up. If you use my body wash I will kill you.”

“Yes, sir.” Julian slid off the bunk, revealing his ridiculous orange-and-green pajamas that made Nerys chuckle as she left the room.

————-

“Good morning, Colonel!” Garak was already awake and sipping his tea, watching a broadcast on his personal viewing device. “Pleasant dreams?”

“I slept alright.” She yawned as the replicator materialized a mug of raktajino and a bowl of Bajoran _hakri_ and _ajes_ fruit, which she was delighted to find that Garak had programmed into it. 

“Excellent!”

Nerys sat down in the chair next to him, “so how exactly are we getting to the city if you don’t have a skimmer? Julian said you arranged transportation?”

“Ah yes. Of course.” The Cardassian nodded, looking up from the broadcast, “until I can obtain a skimmer of my own, we will be riding into the city with my neighbor.”

“You’re sure this neighbor is okay with chauffeuring a Human and a Bajoran?” Nerys took a deep sip of raktajino; it tasted slightly off, but close enough to let it slide.

“Yes. I’ve made sure of it. Besides, he’s Midi. They have always disagreed with the Central Command’s colonialist tendencies. Especially towards Bajor.”

“Fantastic.”

“Although there _is_ one thing you’d like to know.” Garak tilted his head and powered down the personal viewing device completely, putting it aside. 

“What’s that?”

“He is also taking his daughters to school every morning.”

“Alright. That’s fine.” She lifted a spoonful of steaming _hakri_ to her mouth and blew on it, then hesitated before putting it in her mouth to ask, “who’s the man in the painting?”

“Pardon?” Garak gave his trademark head tilt. “Which painting are you referring to?”

“The one above the door in the guest room? It was giving me the creeps so I covered it.” Nerys ate the spoonful of _hakri_. Like the raktajino, it was slightly off, but adequate. “Why is it attached to the wall like that?”

For the briefest moment, which anyone who didn’t know Garak as well as she did would miss, he looked almost offended, but remained composed nonetheless. “Ah that one. Yes, I suppose the eyes would be unnerving to the unacquainted. That is- or I should say _was_ \- Tornak Goj’Un. The founder and first Legate of the Central Command more than seven hundred years ago. That portrait hangs in every Cardassian residence out of respect and loyalty.”

Nerys simply nodded in reply as she continued eating her breakfast. _Of course,_ she thought. _Of_ course _they’d do something like that._

“Good morning, all.” Julian announced as he came upstairs, now donning his Starfleet uniform and combing product through his hair.

“Morning.” Nerys drank some more raktajino.

It didn’t take more that half an hour for all three of them to be ready to leave. The air outside was even hotter than inside; Nerys pushed up her sleeves and fanned herself. She _really_ should tell her higher-ups how unbreathable this fabric was. 

They could now clearly see the neighborhood. The sun was peaking over the mountain range in the southwest, painting thick bands of pinks and oranges into the whitening sky. There were no trees to speak of, but the shrubs and ferns that decorated brown, dusty lawns were large and often sculpted into shapes. There was a complete lack of grass, and the road was worn into the dirt instead of marked with asphalt. Come to think of it, Nerys hadn’t ever _seen_ asphalt on Cardassia. Sure there were some stone roads, but those were in Cardassia City; she hadn’t seen any man made roads in Ivri’Dodaki. 

All the houses were the same shape and size as Garak’s. They were spread out considerably, leaving at least twenty meters between each house. Some houses had toys and playing equipment on the sides or backs of them, and there were children playing with a few of them. The neighbors were getting into skimmers, trying to get their rowdy children into the skimmers, and talking to each other. A few people were walking or jogging down the road. It was so... _odd_ to see Cardassians doing regular, everyday things that almost every other species did. Nerys half expected everyone to see her and Julian and start staring and yelling, but they didn’t. Most of them didn’t even notice, and the ones who did just went on with their business. 

“Are you coming?” Julian called back at Nerys. He was at the edge of the road and Garak had already crossed the street.

She hadn’t even realized that she’d stopped just outside the outer door. “Sorry,” she called and caught up with them. 

Just as Garak was about to ring the door chime, the door was opened by an exasperated-looking Cardassian man with a cup of some hot, foul-smelling beverage. “We’ll be ready in a-“

“YADI! COME HELP ME!” A child’s voice screamed from inside the house.

The man turned his head inside and called back, “JUST A MINUTE! KEEP LOOKING FOR IT!” He looked back at Garak, Nerys, and Julian with a smile. “Sorry about that. Aseni can’t find her lunch card. You can wait in the skimmer if you don’t want to come inside.”

Suddenly the interior door swung open and a little girl about five yanked on the man’s tunic. “Yadi, can you tie my shoes?” She lifted her foot as high as it would go, shoelaces dangling down.

“What?” The man turned to her. “I _just_ tied them!”

“I know, but I had to go to the bathroom, so I took them off.”

“We’ll wait in the skimmer.” Garak nodded and walked towards the large skimmer parked on the dirt. Nerys followed him, but Julian stayed to offer help with the children. The man gleefully accepted.

The skimmer was larger than the one they’d taken to get to this neighborhood; instead of two rows of seats, it had three with two in each row. There were toys all over the floor and some of the seats and crumbs in every crevice. The harder surfaces like handles and seatbelt buckles were weirdly sticky. The cloth seats were stained and worn down. There was no doubt about it: this skimmer regularly carried young children. 

Garak chose a seat in the back that was the cleanest by a long shot, though still a bit dirty. The second cleanest seat was the one in front of him, which had a pile of a half dozen brightly-dressed dolls on top of a green jacket. With a soft, plasticky clatter, Nerys pushed it all off the seat and sat down, setting her bag down at her feet.

There was something sticking out from the crease of the chair; she reached back and pulled out a glossy black card. It had a picture of a young Cardassian girl; not the one she’d just seen in the house, but around the same age. Beside the picture was four lines of Kardasi, which the universal translator quickly translated to read:

“Aseni Rel  
South Olan General School  
Level six”

The last line was just a jumble of numbers and letters. 

“I believe you’ve found the missing lunch card.” Garak was leaning over her shoulder.

“Don’t lean over me like that,” she told him. “I’m gonna go give this to them.” She opened the door again and slid out of the skimmer. When she got back to the outer door, she found it open, so she went in and knocked on the interior door. She heard a faint “come in” and entered the house. 

This house had the same upstairs floor plan as Garak’s, but was a lot more lived in and messier. There were clothes and toys everywhere and Mr. Rel was frantically mopping up a puddle of red liquid spilled on the kitchen floor. Julian was sitting on the couch with the five-year-old, trying to teach her how to tie her shoes as she reached forward to rub his forehead. The older girl, the one in the picture, came up from the stairs and started searching through the bookshelf. Nerys went to her. 

“Hey, is this what you’re looking for?” She held the card out to her. 

The girl turned around and breathed a relieved sigh. “Oh _right_! I put it in my _jacket_!” She took the card and called at her father, “Yadi! Mr. Garak’s friend found my lunch card! It was in the skimmer!”

Her father looked up, finishing mopping. “Great! Thank you, ma’am!” He put the mop away and hurried to the door, tapping his younger daughter’s shoulder on the way. “Okay. Everyone get in the skimmer before there’s another mess.”

Being one of three siblings, Nerys instinctively knew to run back to the seat she’d chosen. Maybe she was too old to be doing that, but she did _not_ want the seat in the back that had some sort of grayish mystery goop on the seatbelt buckle _or_ the middle seat that had every inch of fabric torn off and was slightly damp. The front seat wasn’t horrible, but she wasn’t comfortable sitting next to this random Cardassian man she didn’t know, even though she knew he wasn’t going to harm her. So she rushed to climb into the seat in front of Garak before the children had a chance to claim it. The seatbelt was somewhat jammed on this seat so it took a few tugs to get it to come down, but other than that, it was fine.

When the others arrived, Mr. Rel immediately climbed into the driver’s seat, Julian took the back seat next to Garak, and the girls started arguing about who would get the front seat. It reminded Nerys of when she was younger. Her family’s home had four dining chairs and a Big Chair they’d only use when they had guests; the Big Chair was a cushioned version of the dining chair, and whenever they had someone over, Nerys and her brothers would always argue about who got to sit in the Big Chair. She was in the lead with seventy-three Times in the Big Chair, but who’s keeping track? Besides, the Big Chair was destroyed when Cardassian troops raided the village. As were all the other chairs. Nerys wrenched her brain away from those thoughts as the girls climbed into the skimmer. Aseni was in the front with her father, and the younger one sat across from Nerys. 

“I’m so rude! I haven’t introduced myself!” The man exclaimed as he pulled out into the road. “Itrintak Rel. And these are my daughters, Aseni and Liceri.”

“Hi!” Aseni turned around and waved as her sister was digging around the pile of dolls that Nerys had shoved into the aisle.

Nerys and Julian both took turns quickly introducing themselves. Aseni seemed fascinated by them; she informed them that she’d never seen an alien before, then proceeded to ask Nerys if she could breath fire, to which Nerys answered “no”.

“Do you like dolls?” Liceri turned around and held out a doll to Julian. The doll had matted hair and a yellow dress and appeared to have been drawn on.

The Human smiled kindly and took the doll. “I do! Do you wanna play?”

“Yeah.” Liceri picked up a different one, who was wearing a tiny, cracked, plastic Cardassian military uniform. “My doll’s name is Riska. She’s in the military. And your doll’s name is Tirimi; she’s caught for giving Cardassian resources to the enemy. So that means I have to interrogate you.”

Julian’s eyes grew wide. “Wha-?”

“It’s from a children’s program.” Garak explained with a hand on Julian’s shoulder. “Say, Liceri, May I play too?”

“No! There can only be two dolls right now!” The little girl crossed her arms. 

“We can certainly add another character,” Garak reaches for one of the dolls in the pile, but Liceri hit his hand with her doll.

“DON’T TOUCH MY DOLLS!” She screeched. 

“Liceri, don’t yell!” Itrintak commanded.

“Colonel Kira!” Aseni waved to get her attention, leaning almost completely out of her seat.

“Yes?” Nerys turned her attention to the girl. 

“Is the gravity different? Between Bajor and Cardassia?”

“Well...” Intellectually, Nerys knew that the gravity was slightly different; Bajor’s gravity was about -9.81 meters-per-second, while Cardassia’s was only -9.78. That’s enough of a difference to feel, but Nerys had been on so many planets and experienced so many levels of gravity, that she didn’t ever really notice any difference less than .1 meters-per-second. “Yes. A little bit.”

“Is the sky the same color?”

Nerys looked out the window at the sky. It was still blue, but so light it was almost white. “This sky is whiter.”

“Is there a lot of ocean?”

“Yes. I _think_ that Bajor’s surface is about 67% water bodies, but don’t quote me on that.”

Aseni’s jaw dropped with surprise. “ _67%_? That’s more than _half_!”

“It is.” Nerys nodded. 

“Wow!”

Garak interjected, “if you think _that’s_ a lot, Julian’s planet is 71% water bodies.”

If it was possible, Aseni’s eyes grew even wider. “That’s _crazy_! What do you even _do_ with that much water?”

Nerys turned to Garak. “Wait, how much of Cardassia is covered with water?”

“44%,” he replied simply. 

She tilted her head and looked at him with disbelief. 

“It’s true,” Garak nodded, “sometimes it’s even less if we have an exceptionally dry year.”

“Wow,” she turned back around. 

“Kira!” Aseni reached back and tapped Nerys’ knee. “Kira, what’s your earring for?”

Nerys reached up to gently touch her earring. “It’s a promise that I’ll follow the teachings of the prophets.”

“What are prophets?”

“They’re my gods. Most Bajorans worship them,” she replied. 

“Why?”

“Why what?” Nerys tilted her head. 

“Why do you worship your gods?” Aseni furrowed her eye-ridges. 

Nerys opened her mouth to say something, but she legitimately had no idea how to respond. 

“Do they like you?” 

“I-I-I’d like to think so.” Nerys stammered.

“Our gods don’t,” the girl said plainly. “That’s why we have to survive.”

Nerys was very confused. Luckily (or maybe unluckily), that was when the skimmer pulled into the front of the school. Aseni reached back to grab the green jacket from the floor before leaving the vehicle, and Liceri made sure all her dolls were piled up in her seat before waving goodbye and running towards the school while slinging her bag over her shoulder. 

“Alright,” Itrintak pulled away from the school. “Next stop, the State buildings.”


End file.
